Neil Percival Young
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2,529
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114
Film credits
25
Books
16
Awards
Neil Young wrote the protest song Ohio in 1970 after the Kent State shootings. He co-founded Buffalo Springfield and joined Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Young has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a solo artist and with Buffalo Springfield. He continues to record and perform, and speaks out on social issues.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Neil Young — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Neil Young by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Neil Young — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
In 1945, Neil Young was born in Toronto, Ontario to Scott Young and Edna Blow Young.
Raised in Omemee, Ontario, his father was a journalist and author.
Young survived polio as a child, which affected his gait.
He attended Kelvin High School but left to pursue music.
Neil Young co-founded Buffalo Springfield in 1966, playing guitar and singing. After the band disbanded in 1968, he released his solo debut Neil Young 1968. His 1972 album Harvest included the hit Heart of Gold and became his most successful record.
In 1970, Young wrote Ohio after the Kent State shootings, recording it with Crosby Stills Nash & Young. He formed a long partnership with Crazy Horse, resulting in albums like Rust Never Sleeps 1979.
Young has directed concert films including Rust Never Sleeps and Year of the Horse 1997. In 1995, he collaborated with Pearl Jam on the album Mirror Ball.
Neil Young had a relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress after seeing her in Diary of a Mad Housewife 1970; they had a son, Zeke, in 1972. The relationship ended in 1975.
In 1978, Young married Pegi Morton. They had two children: Ben 1978 and Amber 1984. His sons Ben and Zeke have cerebral palsy. The couple divorced in 2016.
In 2018, Young married actress Daryl Hannah. He is a lifelong model train enthusiast and invested in Lionel Trains to save it from bankruptcy. He lives on a ranch in La Honda, California.
Neil Young entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame both as a solo artist in 1995 and as a member of Buffalo Springfield in 1997. He won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Song and a Juno Award for Album of the Year.
In 2022, Young withdrew his music from Spotify to protest vaccine misinformation on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Joni Mitchell did the same. Rolling Stone has ranked him the 34th greatest artist of all time.
His song Ohio remains a well-known protest song, and his work has influenced folk, rock, and grunge.
Browse the complete filmography of Neil Young — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Neil Young — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Neil Young's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Neil Young — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
Live Music Is Better.
It’s Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away.
Remember When You Used to Watch TV in the ’60S and You’d See Perry Como in a Cashmere Sweater? That’s What Rock’n’roll Is Becoming. It’s Your Parents’ Music.
My My, Hey Hey. Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay.
All That Stuff About Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, I Don’t Subscribe to Any of That. It’s All Just Music. I Mean, the Heavy Metal from the ’70S Sounds Nothing Like the Stuff from the ’80S, and That Sounds Nothing Like the Stuff from the ’90S. Who’s to Say What Is and Isn’t a Certain Type of Music?
As Soon as You Start Talking About Mystique, You Have None.
I Never Met John Lydon, but I Like What He Did to People.
Somehow, by Doing What I Wanted to Do, I Manage to Give People What They Don’t Want to Hear, and They Still Come Back. I Haven’t Been Able to Figure That You Yet.
The Fact Is That I Can Be Really Irritable When I’m Unhappy About Stuff. I Can Be a Nit Picker About Details That Seem to Be Over the Top. but Then Again I’m into What I’m Into, so a Lot of People Forgive Me Because of That.
Every Car Is Full of Stories. Who Rode in ‘Em, Where They Went, Where They Ended Up, How They Got Here.
I Work for the Muse… I’m Not Here to Sell Things. That’s What Other People Do, I’m Creating Them. If It Doesn’t Work Out, I’m Sorry; I’m Just Doing What I Do. You Hired Me to Do What I Do, Not What You Do. as Long as People Don’t Tell Me What to Do, There Will Be No Problem.
At 65, It Seems That I May Not Be at the Peak of My Rock ‘N’ Roll Powers. but That Is Not for Sure.
Writing Is Very Convenient, Has a Low Expense and Is a Great Way to Pass the Time. I Highly Recommend It to Any Old Rocker Who Is Out of Cash and Doesn’t Know What to Do Next.
The Straighter I Am, the More Alert I Am, the Less I Know Myself and the Harder It Is to Recognize Myself. I Need a Little Grounding in Something and I Am Looking for It Everywhere.
For Whatever You’re Doing, for Your Creative Juices, Your Geography’s Got a Hell of a Lot to Do with It. You Really Have to Be in a Good Place, and Then You Have to Be Either on Your Way There or on Your Way from There.
I Like People, I Just Don’t Have to See Them All the Time.
I Don’t Think I’m Going to Be Able to Continue to Mainly Be a Musician Forever, Because Physically I Think It’s Going to Take Its Toll on Me It’s Already Starting to Show up Here and There.
Sometimes, a Smooth Process Heralds the Approach of Atrophy or Death.
Sometimes, It’s Better Not to Blow up at Someone. I Can Save That Anger and Emotion for My Guitar Playing.
I Vow to Speak up and to Do What I Can to Protect Earth.
Little-known facts about Neil Young — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
A lifelong devotee of model trains, Young invested his own money in Lionel Trains LLC when it was facing bankruptcy. He became a part-owner, and the company is now financially sound and thriving.
The songs Southern Man and Alabama were attacks on racism in the Southern United States. Lynyrd Skynyrd answered with Sweet Home Alabama. After Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines died in a 1977 plane crash, Young performed a rare live version of Alabama at Bicentennial Park, Miami, on November 12, 1977, changing the chorus to Sweet Home Alabama.
Young called Carrie Snodgress after seeing her in Diary of a Mad Housewife 1970. In A Man Needs a Maid, he sings: I fell in love with the actress She was playing a part I could understand. The relationship lasted until 1975.
In 1970, Young wrote the song Ohio shortly after the infamous Kent State shootings.
Young has turned down every commercial endorsement he has been offered. He even wrote a song about his stance: This Note’s for You.
Despite living in the United States since the 1960s, he did not apply for citizenship until 2020, when he announced dual US-Canadian citizenship and planned to vote Democratic.
In April 2005, Young was hospitalized to remove a brain aneurysm.
He has two sons with cerebral palsy: Zeke born with Carrie Snodgress and Ben born 1978 with Pegi Young. He also has a daughter, Amber Jean born 1984, with Pegi.
In the mid-1960s, Young played in a band called the Mynah Birds with future R&B artist Rick James and Bruce Palmer. James was AWOL from the US Naval Reserves; before releasing their debut single It’s My Time on Motown’s V.I.P. label, James was extradited and jailed. Young and Palmer later formed Buffalo Springfield.
Young has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Buffalo Springfield and as a solo artist, but not with Crosby Stills Nash & Young.
He lives on a 1500-acre ranch in La Honda, California, and also has homes in Florida and Hawaii.
His solo albums are issued by Reprise Records. When Warner Bros. closed Reprise in 1976, Young refused to move to another label. Reprise later sued him after a string of uncommercial albums, but Young won in court, arguing artistic integrity.
David Bowie was a great admirer of Young’s work and could do an impression of his singing voice.
Young refused a million-dollar offer to appear at Woodstock ’94 based on what he saw as its overemphasis on commercialism.
He left Buffalo Springfield before their appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1967. He was replaced that night and at the Monterey Pop Festival by David Crosby.
In his 1995 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction speech, Young thanked Kurt Cobain for inspiring him to renew his dedication to music. Eddie Vedder introduced him.
Young is the son of Scott Young and half-brother of Astrid Young. He is the partner of Daryl Hannah.
The melody for his song Mother Earth Natural Anthem is taken from the Old English folk song O Waly, Waly. He often closes concerts with it.
He is a guitarist and singer for the folk rock group Crosby Stills Nash & Young.
In 1997, Young was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Buffalo Springfield.
Some of his best-known songs include Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River, Heart of Gold, After the Gold Rush, Hey Hey, My My, and Rockin’ in the Free World.
He played uncredited on a few sessions for the Monkees, including the 1969 song You and I.
Raised in Omemee, Ontario. Scott Young Public School in Omemee is named after his father.
Spin magazine ranked Tonight’s the Night 1975 #14 and Rust Never Sleeps 1979 #61 on its list of the top 100 Alternative Albums in 1995.
Young wrote an infamous dark trilogy Time Fades Away, On the Beach, and Tonight’s the Night after the deaths of friends Danny Whitten and Bruce Berrett, though he considers On the Beach to have a positive message.
His favorite albums of his own are Trans, Everybody’s Rockin’, and Tonight’s the Night, in that order.
Rolling Stone voted him the 34th Greatest Artist of all time.
He became a US citizen in 2020 after living in the United States for over fifty years, retaining his Canadian citizenship.
In 2022, he withdrew his music from Spotify to protest podcaster Joe Rogan spreading conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccine. Shortly after, Joni Mitchell joined him in solidarity.
His parents are Scott Alexander Young and Edna Blow Rassy Young.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Neil Young.
Celebrities similar to Neil Young — same craft, ranked by reach.
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